Tools for Google Drive Productivity

We use Google Drive quite a bit in our course and curriculum development. It is a favorite tool for collaborating with stakeholders and subject matter experts from all over the world. Meetings are difficult to schedule when design partners belong to four separate time zones, but Drive allows us to keep track of who is doing what, when, and where we are in that process. One of the first things I do, at the start of any project, is create a Drive folder in which that project is going to live. Then I try to remember to check it regularly.

As I tackle more and more of these types of projects, however, it becomes easier for me to get lost in one project folder and leave others in neglect. Enter Folder Notifications for Google Drive, a tool that allows me to tend multiple projects and not forget (as I’m apt to do) that one is progressing without me. The tool functions by sending regular updates to your email inbox with a report on all the changes made since the last report came in.

The reports include direct links to the folders in which the changes occurred (see screenshot from one such report above), and you have extensive customization settings, so you only receive notifications for the folders you choose.

Another tool that has proven very useful with Drive is Copy Folder. A lot of our projects follow a similar timeline, and use the same core set of documents, such as course development. Copy Folder allows us to use a template folder containing template documents that we can copy and use for a new project whenever we like. It’s very simple to use, and it saves us a ton of time.

Check these tools out. We’re writing about them here because we use them regularly, and wonder if they might also be helpful for you. Let us know if they are, and chime in with any additional tools if you know of any!